


Welcome to Smashville: Dead Cells

by SwoodMaxProductions



Series: Welcome to Smashville [1]
Category: Dead Cells (Video Game), Super Smash Brothers
Genre: After being treated so terribly in Brawlout the Beheaded finally gets kindness, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Human!Hands, aka Dexter and Sinister Timaeus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27325603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwoodMaxProductions/pseuds/SwoodMaxProductions
Summary: It all started with sighting a strangely friendly man with a fireball for a head...
Series: Welcome to Smashville [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995028
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	Welcome to Smashville: Dead Cells

“Princess… don’t, like, make a big deal about looking or anything, but. Uh. There is a guy over there with, like. A black fireball for a head.”

Zelda turned, hoping she wasn’t drawing too much attention, which she wasn’t. All the attention was being drawn by the man wandering down the street.

His skin was tinted blue, and he was dressed in ragged clothes and a few haphazard pieces of armor. He had a scarf wrapped around his shoulders and neck— or  _ over _ his neck, if he even had one, because sure enough, just as Ness had described,  _ he had no head. _ Where a head should have been, there was only a smoldering eldritch flame. A single point of light swiveled about, clearly some sort of eye, staring in wonder at everything around him.

But, aside from his obvious undeath and surreal head-substitute, nothing really seemed to be…  _ wrong. _ He (at least, she assumed it was a he) made no attempts to do anything to the people staring and drawing away from him. Zelda got up out of her seat.

“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Ness.

“I’m seeing who that is,” she told him.

“...I’m coming with you.” 

After observing the wandering entity, he wasn’t even sure he was backing her up anymore. He was genuinely curious.

“...Hello? Sir?”

No response. It seemed he didn’t see himself as a “sir.”

“ _ There _ you are!”

The entity jumped, and so did Zelda and Ness.

Approaching the headless stranger was a woman in a horned mask, with stark white skin and hair. She carried a pair of swords on her back, but didn’t seem to intend to use them anytime soon. Between her ponytail, her solid muscles, and her towering height, she almost reminded them of Samus.

“What are you doing? I turn around, and you’re gone! We need to stick together, we still don’t know if anyone here will try to kill us yet— oh. Uh. Hello.”

She didn’t seem to quite know how to react to the children looking up at her. Her headless friend waved.

“Hello! I’m Princess Zelda.”

“I’m Ness,” Ness added.

The fearsome-looking woman seemed surprised at their lack of apprehension. Her undead companion, on the other hand, seemed delighted.

“Ah, I see. You’re connected to whoever rules this place?”

“Well,” Zelda began, “Kind of? I’m the princess of Hyrule, but I’m a member of an organization here that… well, it does a lot of things. We’ve fought interdimensional threats, saved worlds, been to… a  _ lot _ of different universes…”

“...Oh. So who would be the person to talk to about… finding a safe haven here?”

“Oh, that’s Dexter! Dexter Timaeus, he’s… I suppose you could call him our leader?”

“...May we speak with him?”

“Of course!”

The woman seemed surprised. In an alley behind her, the shadows seemed to  _ move—  _ a great, hooded  _ something  _ with glowing blue eyes had been there, Zelda realized, the whole time. The masked woman didn’t seem to mind, however.

“I’m known as the Time Keeper. That’s the Collector, he’s… nervous about this, to say the least. And this… well, he’s…”

The Time Keeper hesitated, searching for a way to adequately describe the undead entity.

“We haven’t come up with a name for him yet— it feels weird just calling him the Prisoner or the Beheaded, but it’d be worse to just… He’s mute, but he’s definitely sentient…”

It made sense, considering his lack of a head.

“...This… Dexter… who is he?”

The Collector had spoken for the first time, his voice hoarse and raspy, like stones scraping in a cavern.

“Oh, he’s awesome,” said Ness, “He and his brother are really great people.”

~~~

The little boy, Ness… at first she didn’t believe him. But to her surprise, Dexter Timaeus had proved to be just as Ness described— and more. He was a kind and helpful man beyond anything her jaded imagination had thought possible. He was not only ready and willing to aid their world, but he’d even gotten them a place to stay.

He’d told them they were…  _ welcome. _ That was almost a foreign concept to her by now...

The hot water of the shower in their hotel room felt like heaven, easing loose the tense knots in her muscles. She was almost reluctant to get out. The towels were soft and fluffy. Everything in this world seemed so  _ comforting. _ For the first time in what felt like forever, the Time Keeper felt that things were going to be okay.

She dried off her hair almost on autopilot. She felt so blissfully  _ comfortable. _ Pulling on her clothes again, her hair warm and fluffy, she opened the bathroom door and smiled at the sight that greeted her.

The Beheaded was lying on the sofa, intently watching the device apparently known as a television. The Collector was lying on one of the beds, propped up a bit on some pillows, already beginning to doze off as he watched over the Beheaded’s shoulder. His considerable height left his feet dangling a bit off the edge, his talons peeking out from under the covers. She absentmindedly noted that the undersides of his feet were padded, giving an even greater impression of a gigantic and very contented housecat as his eyes threatened to close at any minute. She never imagined she’d ever see him  _ relax, _ but here they were.

The Beheaded waved, watching her curiously as she settled into the second bed. He’d never seen her without her mask on. 

That night, they slept better than they had in ages.

  
  



End file.
